Generally, electronic components using a ceramic material, such as a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, a thermistor, and the like, include a ceramic body formed of the ceramic material, internal electrodes disposed in the ceramic body, and external electrodes disposed on surfaces of the ceramic body to be connected to the internal electrodes.
Recently, in accordance with the miniaturization and multifunctionalization of electronic products, multilayer ceramic electronic components have also tended to be miniaturized and multifunctionalized. Therefore, a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a small size and high capacitance has been demanded.
Currently, a thickness of the dielectric layer is about 0.5 micrometer (μm), and technology for thinning the dielectric layer is continuously being developed.
In addition to the thinning of the dielectric layer, it has become important to secure characteristics of multilayer ceramic capacitors, such as high-temperature load reliability, aging characteristics, DC-bias characteristics, and humidity resistance characteristics.
In detail, the humidity resistance characteristics are becoming important because humidity penetration affects defects and reliability degradation of a multilayer ceramic capacitor.